Archive for November, 2008

Today is the thirteenth anniversary of the disappearance of Liliana Renee Luna. She was abducted by her non-custodial father from Zapata, Texas. They are believed to be in Mexico.

Above is a picture of Liliana. If you have any information as to her whereabouts, please contact either the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or the Zapata County Sheriff’s Office at 956-765-9960.

Roberta Lima, along with her two daughters, Domminique and Pietra, all of Dover, arrived at Logan International Airport around 1 p.m. amid a flurry of friends and family.

With tears in her eyes, Lima said she can finally sleep at night now that her girls are back in her arms.

“When I got to American soil I finally felt safe, and that’s what this country is all about,” Lima said.

I am very happy about this, especially since citizenship rules apply in Brazil as much as anywhere else, and most of the time authorities won’t even look for the child if the non-custodial parent is a citizen of the country. She is a brave woman and I give all credit to the many who have helped her and kept her daughters from becoming possible cases on the For the Lost site.

There are currently 375 children listed on the For the Lost site as cases on the Adam Haseeb Memorial pages. For the interested, here are some facts and breakdown of statistics of these cases.

The average age of a child in this section is 4.2 years. The two oldest missing children are Jose Medina Lopez and Viridiana Urias, who are both sixteen years old. The youngest children are four months old, and they are Hannah Pobursky, Angel Rosales, Sneha Pierce, Abril Comstock, and Joliet Cedano. A total of nineteen children were under the age of one when abducted and twenty-three were ten years or older. These numbers are consistant with most statements that young children are more likely to be abducted. Older children usually have more resources they can use to escape an abductor, although this can be negated if they are taken out of the country. Children under the age of one are also not frequently taken, presumably because the non-custodial parent would rather not have the responsibility of caring for an infant. This could also be because visitation for very young children is typically strictly monitored.

Out of the 375 children on the site, there are 290 seperate cases. 98 are of single male children (thirty-four percent), 124 are of single female children (forty-three percent), 18 are of groups of male children (six percent), 14 are of groups of female children (five percent), and 36 are mixed gender groups (twelve percent). 162 children were abducted by their mother (fifty-six percent), 7 by their mother and her boyfriend or stepfather (two percent), 99 by their father (thirty-four percent), 3 by their father and grandmother (one percent), 2 by their stepfather (one percent), 3 by their grandmother (one percent), 5 by their grandparents (two percent), 4 by both parents (one percent), 3 by an unknown relative (one percent). One case involved half siblings being abducted by one’s father, who was the other’s stepfather, and one case involved half siblings being abducted by their mother and one’s father.

Of the children in the cases, 101 are of Caucasian descent (thirty-five percent), 16 of African-American descent (six percent), 15 of Asian descent (five percent), 115 of Hispanic descent (forty percent), and 42 are biracial (fourteen percent). Of the biracial children, 5 are black and white (twelve percent), 10 are asian and white (twenty-four percent), 12 are hispanic and white (twenty-nine percent), 5 are asian and hispanic (twelve percent), 2 are asian and black (five percent), 4 are black and hispanic (ten percent), 1 is American Indian and white, and one is American Indian and hispanic. In two cases the racial mix was unknown.

Only eight cases have never been listed on NCMEC. Fourteen were once listed but have been removed. 140 have been missing for nine years or over (forty-eight percent). Only three have been missing for less than a year (one percent).

In twelve cases, caution was advised when approaching the parent. In two of these cases, no reason was given. In six, the parent was wanted for homicide. In the remaining four, they were merely believed to be armed or otherwise dangerous.

This is of course an incomplete look at the cases and I hope to be able to go into some deeper analysis later on.

Above are pictures of Yadira and Wendy. If you have any information as to their whereabouts, please contact either the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or the Los Angeles Police Department at 310-482-6334.

I have just received word from NCMEC that Francisco and Jesus Garcia-Estrada have been found safe. Their case has been resolved and if I can find an article I will post it. The new case on the site is that of Gabrielle and Jordon Torres.

A 2-year-old Orland Park girl missing since Saturday and abducted by her father was reunited with her mother today after her father was arrested in Ohio shortly after midnight, Orland Park police said.

Said K. Ayesh was being held by Ohio State Police on an Illinois warrant for child abduction. Extradition procedures have begun, Orland Park police said. Two other adults were also taken into custody, police said.

The amount of things I am pleased with in this case are numerous. While I can’t be happy that the father abducted anyway, the amount of restrictions placed on him are what kept him from taking his child to Jordan and never returning. Since he is a citizen of that country, they would have made no effort to find him, much less arrest. The mother acted well and took many precautions, including private detectives trailing him. Parental kidnapping should be taken seriously and any threats should be looked on as warnings. I wish Nadin and her mother the best in upcoming days.